Defending your castle: 3 tips for staving off nature’s attacks

You pull into the driveway of your home every day after work, school, or just running your daily errands. The first things you see when you arrive are the effects of nature on the outside of your home.

As time passes, the weather changes and beats on the outside of your home and affects the life and death of your yard. Ticks, mosquitoes, ants, and termites mount their specialized attacks on the lives of your family members, pets, and the very physical structure of your home.

This is your castle. It’s time to take back lost ground. Below are a few suggestions for doing just that.

Landscaping

The first thing most people notice when they drive past your property is the condition of the landscaping. Is the grass trimmed and green? Are the bushes shapely and well fertilized? Have you managed to keep the leaves raked up and the gazebo in pristine condition?

The effects of nature can be brutal on your yard. Too much rain can drown plants and make random mud pits in the otherwise well-treated grass. Not enough can leave your yard dry, brown, and brittle. The falling leaves of trees bedding down for the winter can block out much-needed sunshine and a blustery day can make short work of newly spread grass seed.

Try installing a programmable sprinkler system. This will allow you to offer a cooling drink to thirsty grass in the hot summer months. When you lay down new seed, make sure to place hay over it. This will not only keep the wind from blowing it away but will deter birds from stealing it for lunch.

Extermination

With spring right around the corner, the only thing most of us dread more than spring allergies is the return of the bugs. Ticks return to parasitically ruin our day and the day of our pets. Mosquitos make snacks out of youngins on firefly hunts.

Ants make a family game of kickball hard to enjoy and termites declare all-out war on the very structure of our homes. The next call on the list is going to be the exterminator. In most instances, a professional exterminator can take care of most pest problems in one trip. If you are like most of us and can’t always afford the easiest option, try concocting some home remedies.

For example, to get rid of those pesky ants, simply take your old coffee grounds and spread them over and around the place you suspect they are entering from or around and in their hill. Ants aren’t as fond of coffee as you and I might be. It’s rather fatal to them.

Home Improvement

As the months proceed, nature naturally takes its toll on the outside of your home. Between the wind, damaging rain, the beating of the rays of the sun, and the expanding and contracting caused by simple temperature changes, your castle can take a whooping.

When you factor in the bird’s nests in the gutters, wear and tear on your roof from weather changes and falling debris, and damage from floods and other natural disasters, it becomes quite apparent that there will be plenty of opportunities for home improvements. Make sure to check on and repair broken and worn shingles on a regular basis.

A good pressure washing or a new paint job from time to time will take care of the outside of your home. There are several options for outdoor paints that offer differing levels of protection. Take time to clean out the gutters at least once every other month.

In the fall, you may want to do it more often as the trees shed their foliage. If you would like to cater to your feathered friends without threatening the aesthetic beauty of your home, consider placing bird feeders at strategic locations around your property.

Nature can be rough on a home. Refer here as often as you need for tips on how to defend your castle from the elements.

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